Chapter 7: The Weight of Attention

“What? Why?”

“Why, you ask? Because it’s a waste to keep it buried only on my phone. Look. The picture turned out great, didn’t it?”

Son Eun-hee showed Seo Yeon-ho the screen, her expression asking why he’d even ask such an obvious question. However, Seo Yeon-ho’s face did not brighten as she had expected.

“Do you dislike it?”

“It’s not that I dislike it…”

In truth, he did dislike it. Yet, Seo Yeon-ho found himself reluctant to explain in tedious detail why he didn’t want the photo uploaded.

“Noona, you can upload it. Just please don’t tag my ID. I’d also prefer if you didn’t write my name.”

“Your name? Come to think of it, you didn’t even put a model profile on the product page, did you? Is it that you don’t want people to recognize who you are?”

Stung by the accuracy of her observation, Seo Yeon-ho awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

“No, not at all. Who would recognize me? The only people who’d know who I am are Cherry Picker staff and Glitch fans, surely?”

“Hmm, that’s true enough.”

Stating that Glitch’s fanbase was barely a handful felt like a wasted effort.

“If there’s no one to recognize you, then there’s no problem with uploading it, is there?”

“It’s just that I’d be embarrassed. If the picture goes up on your social media, a lot of people will see it, won’t they?”

Seemingly realizing that further persuasion was futile, Son Eun-hee sighed and pressed the cancel upload button.

“Alright, fine. I just won’t upload it.”

“I apologize.”

“What’s there to apologize for? I’m not losing anything. But tell me, how did you manage to be an idol with all this shyness?”

Son Eun-hee scrutinized Seo Yeon-ho as if he were some curious creature. In her circle, there were only those desperate for attention. This was natural, considering everyone who frequented the hair salon was involved in the entertainment industry—influencers, one-person media broadcasters, and the like.

‘Even if he were an ordinary person, after putting effort into his hair for the first time in a while, it would be natural to want to catch someone’s eye. So why does he dislike attention?’

However, Son Eun-hee’s assumption was entirely mistaken. Seo Yeon-ho didn’t dislike receiving attention. Quite the opposite, he was actively avoiding situations where he might receive attention, fearing he would become thirsty for it.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s such a waste to keep this face to ourselves. Hyo-jun, after work, take him to a club or something tonight.”

“Huh? Honey, is that really okay?”

Bang Hyo-jun, who adored clubs to no end, immediately snapped his head around. Seo Yeon-ho, seeing Bang Hyo-jun’s rough breaths of anticipation, thought him utterly clueless. It should have been obvious that Son Eun-hee’s suggestion to go to a club couldn’t be serious, yet he seemed poised to free-dive straight into the trap she had laid.

“Yes. It’s perfectly fine, honey. Let’s all go together after I finish work.”

“Alri— Ugh.”

Seo Yeon-ho urgently jabbed his knee into the back of Bang Hyo-jun’s knee, stopping him from digging his own grave and even burying himself. Bang Hyo-jun’s body lurched, and he shot a protesting look that asked, ‘What are you doing?’

“Hyung, don’t look at me like that. Hyung, I just saved you from being torn limb from limb by Noona when you get home later.”

‘Hyo-jun hyung is a liability.’

He worried that Bang Hyo-jun might dig himself into another hole, rendering his rescue pointless. Seo Yeon-ho decided to eliminate any pretext for the club conversation entirely.

“Noona, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll have the time. Instead of missing my daytime shift today, the agency told me to work the night shift.”

It was true that he planned to work the night shift. However, Seo Yeon-ho had volunteered for the night work out of greed for money; the agency hadn’t demanded he make up for the missed shift. Of course, there was no need to tell Son Eun-hee that fact.

As if reason was slowly returning to him, the color drained completely from Bang Hyo-jun’s face as he glanced between Seo Yeon-ho and Son Eun-hee.

“Honestly, why is your agency so inflexible? I’ll get going now, but let’s grab a drink sometime later. Have a good shoot.”

Son Eun-hee, wearing a regretful expression at missing the chance to scold Bang Hyo-jun, headed off to the hair salon for work. Bang Hyo-jun, realizing belatedly that he had narrowly escaped, seemed quite grateful to Seo Yeon-ho for saving him. After the shoot concluded, he handed Seo Yeon-ho a shopping bag and a garment bag.

The shopping bag contained the clothes Seo Yeon-ho had arrived in, while the garment bag held the new merchandise from today’s shoot along with Bang Hyo-jun’s dress shirt. That dress shirt was a luxury item Bang Hyo-jun had pulled from his own wardrobe specifically for today’s filming.

He had often received clothes sold by Da Capo as gifts after fitting shoots. However, this was the first time he had received a luxury item, even a used one, from Bang Hyo-jun, which left him feeling flustered.

“Hyung, I appreciate the gift, but I never have occasion to wear such formal attire.”

“Ah, you never know. You’re reaching the age where you’ll start getting wedding invitations, aren’t you? It wouldn’t be strange for a classmate to suddenly invite you to a wedding next week. And who knows? You might even have an interview for a respectable company.”

‘An occasion to wear a suit for an interview seemed unlikely to ever happen in his lifetime.’

Seo Yeon-ho refuted Bang Hyo-jun’s words only in his mind. There was no benefit in upsetting someone who was trying to be kind to him. Besides, as Bang Hyo-jun suggested, perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea to have at least one suit in his closet.

‘Still, I don’t need this much.’

Seo Yeon-ho gathered the shopping bag and garment bag in one hand and tapped his card on the bus terminal. From the bus radio, advertisements for stone beds, insurance, and car oil flowed out. As he stared blankly out the window, he noticed a ‘Cold Reading’ advertisement plastered on a bus in the adjacent lane.

‘This really feels like a scene from Cold Reading.’

Bae Da-ro, the protagonist of Cold Reading, had lost his memory. He wandered, unaware of his identity, until the final scene of the first episode, where he recalled fragments of his lost memories. The catalyst for this was a musical performance advertisement on a bus, leading him to attend the show and meet the female lead, one of the performers.

‘Seo Yeon-ho, no matter where you go, all you think about is Cold Reading. Anyone would think you’re a huge fan of that drama.’

Seo Yeon-ho scoffed inwardly, then let out a small chuckle. Looking back, even if he wasn’t a “fan” per se, he had watched the drama with considerable immersion.

‘The early episodes were certainly captivating and enjoyable.’

Those who had been hooked by the initial episodes couldn’t let go of the hope that the story would conclude well, even as it veered wildly off course. Seo Yeon-ho was one of those viewers subjected to this torment of hope.

‘The direction was quite decent, even while the drama was crashing and burning. The script, however, was hopeless.’

Why had the writer chosen such a terrible ending? Didn’t they feel any regret for the synopsis and characters, which had been set up to be legendary? It was a script that could have been praised as a masterpiece even if it had simply followed clichés.

Seo Yeon-ho was genuinely curious about the mind of a writer who had stubbornly chosen only the paths they shouldn’t have taken. Sometimes, the protagonist’s treatment was so severe that he even suspected the writer deliberately wanted to ruin the character.

‘The protagonist’s character became flat from the middle onwards, and they were fed too many frustrating situations. It should have felt like a precarious tightrope walk, with the protagonist and their sworn brother probing each other’s true intentions.’

The storyline of the protagonist’s sworn brother was the part Seo Yeon-ho found most regrettable while watching the drama. If utilized well, it could have made the drama more suspenseful and engaging, but as the plot progressed, it devolved into a superfluous element that made viewers wonder why the character was even there. While the script was certainly a factor, this was likely unavoidable due to the actor who played the role getting a DUI.

‘If I really did regress, and what I saw in my dream is indeed reality, then my future must have changed, right?’

Seo Yeon-ho found himself contemplating whether there might be a way to change the drama’s ending, just as his own future had changed, but then he burst into laughter at the absurdity of it. He realized he was acting like someone more genuinely invested in Cold Reading than any ardent fan, despite his earlier denial.

‘[Now playing your requested song: Glitch’s “Irresistible Fate.”]’

The smile vanished from Seo Yeon-ho’s face, where it had lingered as he rested his chin in his hand. The radio DJ’s gentle voice had just announced the last promotional song of the group Seo Yeon-ho used to be a part of.

This was a song that had never been played on the radio, except during their own radio schedules. Hearing it now, only after he had given up everything, brought a lump to his throat.

‘I don’t want to hear it.’

As the intro music played, Seo Yeon-ho frantically fumbled in his pants pocket. He was searching for his Bluetooth earphones. But, as luck would have it, he realized he hadn’t brought them with him that morning.

‘What should I do? Would the driver turn the music off if I asked? Or should I just get off at the next stop?’

Just as he reached to press the stop request bell, the radio broadcast abruptly cut out. It seemed the bus driver was changing the channel.

Seo Yeon-ho felt the tension drain from his body as he heard the news program, rather than his own voice from the song’s intro, begin to play. It was less a release of tension and more a feeling of utter deflation.

‘[Chairman Kang Gyu-jin, head of Insung Group, who was hospitalized on the dawn of the 13th due to acute myocardial infarction, will be discharged this afternoon. Insung Group announced that Chairman Kang’s cardiopulmonary function returned to normal during his hospitalization in the VIP ward, and he is expected to return to work after a week of recuperation at home. Next, news on the stock split of IT platform company Origin. Origin announced that its board of directors decided on the 21st to split its stock to increase the number of circulating shares. Consequently, the value of shares held by Han-seong, Origin’s founder and chairman, will…]’

These stories, so far removed from Seo Yeon-ho’s reality, scattered like sea foam against rocks. The wind blowing in through the window was hot and humid. A message arrived, and he wondered who it was from, only to realize it was the café owner he’d befriended while putting up ‘Cold Reading’ posters.

‘[Little brother~. If you have some free time, could you stop by the shop?]’

‘[Yes, I’m free. What’s the matter?]’

‘[I ordered a large quantity of flour and sugar, but the supplier’s boss must have been busy, because they left them in the parking lot instead of the kitchen. Oh dear, Jung-eun isn’t due to start for a while, so there’s no one to help.]’

‘[I’ll help. It’ll probably take me about 20 minutes to get to Moonlight.]’

‘[I can wait that long, no problem. Thanks, little brother!]”